Abstract

As well as being a long process, the treatment of pressure ulcers involves the application of different therapeutic methods. In treating soft tissue defects, including pressure ulcers, physical modalities are increasingly used.The experiment involved 24 patients (16 women and 8 men) with chronic stage II-IV pressure ulcers, who were distributed between two comparative groups, A and B. Group A consisted of 12 subjects (8 women and 4 men) whose mean age was 75.27 years (±19.24). The mean wound surface area in the group was 4.71 (±3,42 cm2). Group B (control) contained 12 subjects (8 women and 4 men) whose mean age was 77.21 (±10.32) years. The mean wound surface area in group B was 4.51 (±3,73 cm2). In addition to standard treatment for pressure ulcers that both groups received, group A patients were additionally administered ultrasound therapy (1 MHz; 0.5 W/cm2; 20%; 1 min/cm2). Healing processes were observed in both groups for 6 weeks. The wound surface area, diameter and linear measurements were found to decrease statistically significantly. Treatment results in the ultrasound group were somewhat better, but healing rates derived from changes in pressure ulcer surface areas, lengths, widths and diameters did not show the groups to be statistically significantly different (respectively 85.23% (±10.23), 78.21% (±18.16), 74.78% (±22.88), 80.23% (±7.88) in group A and 84.11% (±8.45), 74.98% (±13.12), 73.54% (±21.66), 79.01% (±8.11) in group B).Ultrasound therapy does not make pressure ulcers heal significantly faster, nor does it significantly reduce their surface areas, diameters and linear measurements.

Key words:

focused shockwave, radial shockwave, calcaneal spur